Hip Genres & Musical Styles: Which Is The Worst??

More trouble than it's worth. The only genre I have that's got its own section is reggae, everything else is mashed in together.

Oh yeah I have a reggae section too lol

I have a section incorporating rock, pop, and techno(?), a soul music section, "world music" for the Frenchies and reggae lps and African comps, country/folk, blues, jazz, and box sets. I'm probably going to reorganize it.

my records are organized by avg bpm

the dance ones anyway. the non dance ones are organized by vibe

organizing records by some arbitrary yardstick is not only fun and interesting, the more arbitrary it is the more incentive you have to keep reorganizing, so you get to extend the fun

i hope to die crushed under a shelf of records someday.

fail my dex roll.

lol

One of the local record stores in LA was tipped off to what looks to have been a record hoarder's Malibu beach house, the photos from inside are alarming, I feel like there must be an old man buried under there somewhere. Like maybe tens of thousands of records all boxed up and also tossed about.

Anyway, they clearly had poorly thought out categories and genres

i've definitely been in hoarder homes before -- it's a really grim scene. one guy had records in the bathrooms, under the sinks, everywhere.

I have anxiety about my current overflow, which is maybe twenty records. Having just spent a year cleaning out my wife's parents' hoarder nightmare home I've decided to cap it at a certain point. Records have to go out before records can come in.

yes I have successfully gotten rid of my ridiculous overflow and confined everything to three large shelves (plus six boxes of "for sale" records for shows that live in the basement)

20 records overflow is nothing to worry about! i definitely have a lot to get rid of, but most of it is comparatively worthless marginalia so the reality is i just put it out on the street a lot of the time. especially the 78s.

I kind of want to separate out all my uk82/klangpunk stuff, it would just look nice all together

sometimes i think about organizing certain sections (jazz & world music mostly) by label and have to fight the impulse.
but the fact is, i already separate out stuff by label in my old-timey and blues sections, so i've already lost.

think how nice all those impulse spines would look together......

I don't know how people have the patience, the time, or the will to organize records in anything but alphabetical order (and even that is a headache). I sorted alphabetically for years until I moved a few times, after which I started listing my collection on Discogs. Now everything is sorted somewhat randomly inside numbered crates and boxes so I can at least know the general location of something if I need to find it. I rarely need to find anything though, as I typically always have a stack of recently acquired records that get lots of play until they get demoted to the numbered boxes, rarely to be played or even thought about again. Yes, this is a bad habit

some of us are just autistic my dude

I like sorting things it’s fun

brimstead otm

Haha I think I have a reasonable handle on my twenty records overflow but I probably just have house clean out PTSD 😕

xp to paul ponzi

maybe if you organized yr records more often you would see the old ones more and then be reminded to play them. also reorganizing your records is an opportunity to move them around so they don’t get too dusty

those are two reasons i’m constantly reorganizing, anyway

Northern Soul 3

Three of yall are crazy.

maybe if you organized yr records more often you would see the old ones more and then be reminded to play them

This is absolutely true, and I will admit that during those rare times I do a cull or a major move of some sort, I rediscover things I'd long forgotten about

i took out some records for dusting today and it spurred me to listen to taj mahal travelers “august 1974”. i’ve decided to move it from the “experimental” crate (where it was next to “catch wave”) to the “krautrock” one.

i also gave steve lacy / yuji takahashi / takehisa kosugi “distant voices” a listen. prime ashtray rattling! it’s moving to the “free music” crate, where it will sit next to roscoe mitchell sextet and human arts ensemble

Industrial/Noise - is a wide spectrum of sounds ranging from amazing (Cabaret Voltaire are one of my favourite bands - surely this isn't what people were thinking of when they voted?) to terribly amazing (I saw Whitehouse once, the whole audience was screaming abuse at them, encouraged by Bennett; he dragged a particularly gobby audience member on stage, pulled his trousers down and spanked him like a naughty child. It was a spectacle) to amazingly terrible (there's an ocean of acts in this style littering discogs, RYM and Bandcamp that I have no desire to listen to or even know about).

Private Press Singer-Songwriter - I've never knowingly heard any private press Singer-Songwriters. As an aside: I find the phrase 'singer-songwriter' a bit confusing. Like, anyone who sings and writes songs in any style is a singer-songwriter. Sometimes if I Google someone I like, a soul singer or something, it'll declare them a 'singer-songwriter'. But I guess it tends to refer to solo artists who mainly play one instrument (probably a guitar, maybe a piano) to accompany their songs, which isn't something that particularly interests me. Get a band together ffs.

Free Jazz!!/Hard Bop - I got harrumphed at on the Maligned Genres thread for a throw away comment expressing my distate for free jazz, so let me elucidate: I like some jazz, I really like a lot of styles influenced by jazz (funk, afrobeat, latin). And I know people who think this means I should like Bop and Free Jazz, who think that these styles are objectively the best music due to complexity and technicality, who think my failure to like them is a personal failing on my part, that I've not tried hard enough, that I just haven't found the right 'in' to make me like it. I've been given books on Jan Garabek, I've been made to watch YouTube videos on the mathematical relationship of notes in 50s Jazz recordings. I've been recommended all kinds of things and I've tried. The history, the theory, the passion inspired is interesting, but whenever I hit play, the noise coming out of the speakers makes me cringe.

Garage - 60s garage rock = great. Music played by Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage = great. The early 90s Jersey Sound that gets called Garage in the UK = okay. UK Garage = great.

Country Blues - I know nothing about Country Blues.

Northern Soul - amazing.

Classic Indie Rock (1980-2000???? argue w me here please) - indie rock in 1980, 1990 and 2000 are so different, what counts as indie rock is so varied, that this category is almost meaningless. It ranges from excellent to awful.

Ska (original only) - is amazing.

Dancehall - I love a bit of dancehall.

Psychedelic/Acid Folk - not for me, but I've no problem with it.

Japanese - was this supposed to be Japanese psych-rock? What little I've heard is fine.

Dub - is one of the greatest creations in human history.

Salsa - I guess I count as a hipster Salsa fan. For years Salsa meant to me dance classes that the nice but boring woman in accounts went to on a Thursday evening. It didn't even register as a style of music worth investigating. It hadn't occurred to me that it could a vital, influential, political, force of nature every bit the equal of funk or reggae. Then I heard a Salsa comp on Strut records and it opened my eyes. I dived into Fania and Vampisoul reissues. So much amazing music.

West Coast Psychedelic Rock - is never psychedelic or rocking enough.

Musique Concrete - I like the idea of musique concrete. I never want to actually listen to it.

Tropicalia - I've never dug deeply into this, but the two Gal Costa albums Ive heard (her second one, Gal, and Índia) are both excellent.

Boogaloo - is great. Not as great as the similar Latin-Soul, but still great.

Krautrock - the best, well know stuff (Can, Neu!) is great. Beyond that is a world of variable quality. I know someone who's really into this and he loves loads of awful stuff.

English Folk - not for me, but i don't hate it if i hear it. My aunt and uncle were into folk festivals in the 60s, and still are in their retirement, so I've heard plenty. There was a bloke with a mandolin who used to sing sea shanties outside the library - he was amazing.

And since these got mentioned:

Italo disco - is, at its best, all kinds of fantastic.

Black metal - I was a metaller in the 80s. NWOBHM. Hair metal. The arrival of black metal is where I got off the metal train.

Disco rap - for all its musical limitations, if I get in the zone I can listen to this for hours.

Instrumental acoustic guitar music (here's a fun one to argue about) - I doubt I'd like it, so I've never listened to it. I may be wrong. I may be missing out. Maybe one day I'll discover it but there's too much music I know I'll like and so little time to listen to it all that it'll have to wait. Probably forever.

House music - all night long

Salsa - I guess I count as a hipster Salsa fan. For years Salsa meant to me dance classes that the nice but boring woman in accounts went to on a Thursday evening. It didn't even register as a style of music worth investigating. It hadn't occurred to me that it could a vital, influential, political, force of nature every bit the equal of funk or reggae. Then I heard a Salsa comp on Strut records and it opened my eyes. I dived into Fania and Vampisoul reissues. So much amazing music.

Which comp are you referring to? Do you mean this one?

https://www.discogs.com/release/2471818-Various-Salsa-Explosion-The-New-York-Salsa-Revolution-1968-1985

I don't think this one is strictly salsa but I remember a friend playing this one a lot and thinking I should investigate further. I am almost totally ignorant about Latin music

This is one of the best salsa compilations I've ever owned. Not a lot of instantly recognizable tracks but a bunch of amazing ones, especially the first, which has some incredible production from the fake "live audience" at the beginning on down.

https://www.discogs.com/release/3605291-Various-NYC-Salsa-The-Incendiary-Sound-Of-Latin-New-York

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXDRz1JXzYI

Which comp are you referring to? Do you mean this one?

https://www.discogs.com/release/2471818-Various-Salsa-Explosion-The-New-York-Salsa-Revolution-1968-1985

Yeah, that's the one. Like I say, I had zero interest in Salsa before I picked it up (for a pound in a sale as a random punt). It opened my eyes (or should that be ears) to a new world of music and I went from there.

i've definitely been in hoarder homes before -- it's a really grim scene. one guy had records in the bathrooms, under the sinks, everywhere.

― ian

this is one of the things that makes me grateful for technology, i absolutely would've been the person who had newspapers stacked to the ceiling and couldn't move in my apartment, instead i have a black box with unbelievable amounts of crap in it, and it's never going to run out of space. hoarder magic!

West Coast Psychedelic Rock - is never psychedelic or rocking enough

that’s because it’s made for psychedelic people, you are expected to bring your fair share of psychedelic vibe in order to complete the psychedelic experience

maybe you should get hi on the solstice at the beach, and then wade into the water just as the setting sun reaches the horizon, it might help you become a more psychedelic person

I utterly adore both Industrial and Noise music. I realise they’re not for everyone though 🤷🏻‍♂️.

that’s because it’s made for psychedelic people, you are expected to bring your fair share of psychedelic vibe in order to complete the psychedelic experience

That's a good insight, I like that thought

also if we’re talking abt easy rider era west coast psychefelic country rock like david crosby or buffalo springfield you have to remember these ppl were already on the 70s comedown bummer trip before the 60s had even peaked

if you’re talking abt strawberry alarm clock idk check yr ears

Can’t believe I left shoegaze off this poll

<i>that’s because it’s made for psychedelic people, you are expected to bring your fair share of psychedelic vibe in order to complete the psychedelic experience<i>

It was a glib comment in a very long post. For What It's Worth is obviously a 5 star classic that it's hard to understand anyone not liking. Strawberry Alarm Clock... less so.

But if you're expected to bring your fair share of psychedelic vibe in order to complete the psychedelic experience, then almost any music can be psychedelic. I've had acid moments to Swing Out Sister and Cyprus Hill. There's that Banco de Gaia album where Jerusalem rises out of the electronic soundscape. No-one describes Sir Hubert Parry as psychedelia.

I guess our understanding of what is psychedelic depends on time and place. My psychedelic era was the 90s, the place raves and festivals or hanging out around London, Sheffield and Manchester. In my personal conception of psychedelic music, compared with space rock, or Norman Whitfield in full flight, or rainbow trance, or shoegaze, David Crosby sounds as psychedelic as Frank Sinatra. If I'd been in San Francisco with flowers in my hair in 1968 I'm sure I'd feel differently.

But if you're expected to bring your fair share of psychedelic vibe in order to complete the psychedelic experience, then almost any music can be psychedelic. I've had acid moments to Swing Out Sister and Cyprus Hill.

this. I've had far more psychedelic acid and weed experiences listening to Freddie Hubbard than I ever did with Sleep

I’m shocking news weed and LSD can enhance enjoyment of all music, not just hippie shit.

xxp you sound pretty defensive! are you sure you’re actually a psychedelic person, or are you really just an uptight square?!?

my most psychedelic track ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK3APtfqp5Q

I’m shocking news weed and LSD can enhance enjoyment of all music, not just hippie shit.

― ian, Tuesday, 30 May 2023 14:21 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Not all music. Pick the wrong tunes for your trip and you can end up jittery, spinning out or rolling on the floor hyperventilating with laughter.

xxp you sound pretty defensive! are you sure you’re actually a psychedelic person, or are you really just an uptight square?!?

― the late great, Tuesday, 30 May 2023 14:26 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Not defensive. Rambling on semi-incoherently = propah acidhead*

* who am I kidding? I haven't done acid for years /middle aged dad/

Not all music. Pick the wrong tunes for your trip and you can end up jittery, spinning out or rolling on the floor hyperventilating with laughter.

― Spandex, Tuesday, May 30, 2023 12:16 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sad but true. And it's rarely the albums you expect will give you a bad time. Music can be scarily unpredictable in these contexts

Spandyourmindex

xps I think i know what you mean about LP & Mary Ford, their recordings are full of ghosts. It's more paranormal activity music to me than psych and it's on the square side to modern ears. But i could see it as 'mom and dad unwittingly drank the acid-spiked tea'

Not a lot of instantly recognizable tracks but a bunch of amazing ones, especially the first, which has some incredible production from the fake "live audience" at the beginning on down.

this track is so good that it almost makes up for your awful takes on samba, tropicalia and AMM itt.

my most psychedelic track ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK3APtfqp5Q

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR)

lmao WTF is this? this is about as psychedelic as the mf'ing BEACH BOYS!!!!

Imo something about it feels “hyperreal” (more real than reality) that gives it a psychedelic edge. Like it comes from somewhere else that is reality, but where we have been living just ain’t it. Also, there is some weird sound effect (maybe another guitar track) burbling underneath that reminds me of the electric jug in the 13th Floor Elevators.